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Uncaptioned vignette on the first page of twentieth installment (Chapters 46-50)
John McLenan
1861
Wood engraving
11 cm. by 6 cm. (4 ⅛ by 2 ¼ inches) vignetted.
Bulwer-Lytton's A Strange Story
Harper's Weekly (21 December 1861): 810.
Image scan and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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“And who, think you, is the admirable helpmate my scape-grace has had the saving good luck to find? A daughter of the worthy man who undertook the care of poor Dr. Lloyd’s orphans, — the orphans who owed so much to your generous exertions to secure a provision for them; and that child, now just risen from her father’s grave, is my pet companion, my darling ewe lamb, — Dr. Lloyd’s daughter Amy.”
Here the child joined us, quickening her pace as she recognized the old man, and nestling to his side as she glanced wistfully towards myself. A winning, candid, lovable child’s face, somewhat melancholy, somewhat more thoughtful than is common to the face of childhood, but calm, intelligent, and ineffably mild. Presently she stole from the old man, and put her hand in mine. [Instalment 19, Chapter XLV: 796.]
Chapter XLVI. [Heading for Instalment 20]
Julius Faber and Amy Lloyd stayed in my house three days, I and in their presence I felt a healthful sense of security and peace. Amy wished to visit her father’s house, and I asked Faber, in taking her there, to seize the occasion to see Lilian, that he might communicate to me his impression of a case so peculiar. I prepared Mrs. Ashleigh for this visit by a previous note. When the old man and the child came back, both brought me comfort. Amy was charmed with Lilian, who had received her with the sweetness natural to her real character, and I loved to hear Lilian’s praise from those innocent lips.
Faber’s report was still more calculated to console me. . . . [Chapter XLVI: 810.]
Fenwick is relieved when Faber reports that Lilian was charmed by Amy when they visited her. The old man's affectionate relationship with the child touches his heart and softens his emotions. She even organizes Faber's papers, and places "the mark in his book when he ceased to read. . . ."
Bulwer-Lytton uses Amy Lloyd's appearance as something of a serial curtain as he introduces her at her father's grave in Instalment 19 Chapter XLV (14 December 1861), but develops her relationship with Julius Faber in the follwing week's number.
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G. D. A Strange Story. Illustrated by John McLenan. Harper's Weekly V, 10 August — 8 March 1862.
Bulwer Lytton, Edward (Lord Lytton). A Strange Story. The Works of Edward Bulwer Lytton, Vol. VII. New York: P. F. Collier, n. d. Pp. 7-242.
Created 21 November 2007 Last modified 7 July 2026